


for the rest of our lives

by msz



Category: Chinese Actor RPF, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) RPF
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Escape Rooms, Established Relationship, M/M, Sexy use of Numbers, Street Dance of China 3, Surprises, meet the team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26091376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msz/pseuds/msz
Summary: He knew the show would capture moments between the captains and even the explosive dance moves but they wouldn’t capture the little moments of bonding between Yibo and his team. He wanted to meet them, to hear why they chose Yibo and to see why Yibo chose them. They were Yibo’s family for the time being and Xiao Zhan was itching to see them for himself./Inspired by the next SDC ep where the Captains all play an escape room style game.
Relationships: Wang Yi Bo/Xiao Zhan
Comments: 25
Kudos: 242





	for the rest of our lives

**Author's Note:**

> yo shoutout to leny for egging me on for this one lmao this is an a.m. fic so sorry about any mistakes x  
> also no spoilers for the escape room clues so feel free to play at home?

Xiao Zhan wouldn’t say Yibo was acting suspicious but there was definitely something cooking in that wondrous mind of his boyfriend. He’d be texting almost constantly during dinner with a mysterious smile set into his cheeks, eyes darting from text to text. Xiao Zhan had taken to throwing him odd glances now and then to let him know he didn’t appreciate phones during dinner, but he couldn’t complain much when he got a few texts from his old friends from The Wolf’s cast.

If someone had told him two years ago he’d end up falling hard for a man six years his junior, enough to shack up with him and move around the entire country just so he could be close to him, he’d have been very concerned for their mental health.

Now though, he looked up at Yibo, observed the residues of makeup streaked over his face and neck, a bruise high up on his adam’s apple peeking through the concealer that he was strangely proud of and the necklace Xiao Zhan had gifted to him as a promise dangling over his chest. Yibo grinned at something on his phone, a similar smile softening its way over Xiao Zhan’s lips too.

Even then he reached with his foot and nudged a toe into Yibo’s foot, “Hey not to sound too whiny, but pay attention to your dinner!”

“Ah? Oh!” Yibo looked up, a flash of guilt mirroring in his eyes before he set the phone down, and focused on Xiao Zhan. He flashed him an apologetic smile and went back to shoving food mercilessly into his mouth, making Xiao Zhan snort with affection.

Xiao Zhan shook his head and went back to his bowl of food; they usually weren’t ones to stay quiet during dinner but sometimes in the isolation of their hotel room, words wouldn’t escape them. It was tough to talk about their days apart from each other, too caught up in the whirlwind of work to do much other than collapse into each other’s arms at the end of the day.

Sometimes the day ended with Yibo pressing urgent fingers into his skin, lips tracing familiarly over his body, and sometimes they’d make do with just being in each other’s arms, silent but comfortable.

But today seemed different. Different than most days they’ve had. He loved the regularity and routine in the little things in his life, like always waking up to a good morning message from his boyfriend who was already at work, or spending a full day talking to his mother about everything he’d done that week. Or even the meticulous work of washing dishes, and making Yibo his favourite green tea to take to work, and rifling through his emails looking for any important ones. 

Having Yibo in their hotel room for a late dinner was a regularity he was getting used to, had gotten used to. He loved throwing something together in the small kitchenette, something that always made Yibo make appreciative noises even though Xiao Zhan knew he’d probably eaten after work.

Yibo was in the middle of filming Street Dance of China and Xiao Zhan always looked forward to hearing funny stories about Yibo’s team members or their intricate dance routines or the jokes he always told his long-suffering dance geges. He knew the show would capture moments between the captains and even the explosive dance moves but they wouldn’t capture the little moments of bonding between Yibo and his team. He wanted to meet them, to hear why they chose Yibo and to see why Yibo chose them. They were Yibo’s family for the time being and Xiao Zhan was itching to see them for himself.

He blinked and chewed on his rice for a while. Then, “Yibo? Can I meet your team one day?”

Yibo who’d hilariously been in the middle of shoving a large piece of beef into his mouth, stopped in his tracks. His mouth was open like he was surprised but Xiao Zhan saw his eyes light up.

“That’s a great idea! Xiao Zhan, you’re a genius!” Yibo reached over and slapped his shoulder, rather painfully, and sat back with his phone, texting like a maniac, beef long forgotten in his bowl.

Xiao Zhan rubbed his shoulder thoughtfully, wondering why Yibo had acted as if the idea was pure genius. Sure it was a great idea but it seemed like Yibo was thinking of something else. Still, he sipped his water and stared suspiciously at Yibo’s gleeful expression.

***

By the time Yibo brought it up again, Xiao Zhan had completely forgotten about it. He’d made a quick trip over to Chongqing to see his parents and visit Jianguo and by the time he came back, it seemed like nothing else had transpired. That was until Yibo woke early with the help of his alarm and instead of rolling away from Xiao Zhan’s arms and getting out of bed, he snuggled further in and nudged his nose into Xiao Zhan’s own.

“Ge,” his voice rasped, “Zhan-ge, get up, let’s go out today.”

Xiao Zhan frowned in his half-sleep state and was about to be pulled under again when Yibo pulled away from him, causing him to let out a pathetic whine.

A cackle sounded from above him and Xiao Zhan peeked his eyes open to see Yibo standing beside the bed in all his naked glory. But Xiao Zhan tilted his head and through the blurriness of his poor vision, he saw inspiration. The sunlight curved around the entirety of their room, emanating a soft glow. Yibo’s skin reflected this golden glow and he looked to be a God in Xiao Zhan’s eyes.

He opened his mouth, “Let me paint you.”

Yibo made an inquisitive sound then laughed, “Okay baby, I’ll let you paint me like a French girl but only if you get up.” And with that, Yibo left the room, probably to go to the washroom but Xiao Zhan felt as if he took all the light with him.

He groaned, what even were his thoughts this early in the morning? And why did Yibo want him to get up and be ready since he was going on set today?

Xiao Zhan must’ve drifted off again because the next time he was jolted awake, Yibo stood in front of him completely washed and dressed, wearing one of Xiao Zhan’s signature disappointed looks.

“I told you to get up.”

Xiao Zhan wanted to be a little shit to him for a change, so he snuggled further into his duvet, “Why am I supposed to get up? It’s too early and anyway you need to be on set.”

Yibo smiled menacingly at him and Xiao Zhan braced himself for whatever was to come. That was the rest of his life from now on anyway.

“You wanted to meet my team right? So c’mon get dressed, let’s meet them!”

***

To Yibo’s credit, he handled Xiao Zhan’s moods fairly well and spent the next several minutes calming him, encouraging him and pushing him to get ready. Xiao Zhan was feeling a flurry of emotions, mostly shock, fear, apprehension, ire and a little bit of excitement.

They both decided to take separate cars to the venue since the set for the show was far too well-known and most media had their eyes on the studios they used to film.

Xiao Zhan fidgeted the entire car ride over, eyes looking around intrigued, picking out the locations where Yibo had danced his introductory routine. Finally, he was introduced and escorted by a very excited producer to Yibo’s dressing room. His boyfriend was on set and by the sounds of it they were in the middle of filming the dance routines so Xiao Zhan made himself comfortable on a sofa there and flicked through Weibo and Oasis to pass the time.

Soon, he got thoroughly bored and spotted Yibo’s gym bag that he used to carry around miscellaneous things in, and rifled through it quickly, spotting his Airpods and putting them in. He spent the next hour or so listening to his favourite playlist and dozing in and out of a light nap.

Xiao Zhan jolted up when he felt something against his lips. Only a moment later, he saw Yibo up close and realized he’d been kissed awake. He smiled at his boyfriend who was standing, leaned over him and was about to push up for another kiss when he heard titters from behind Yibo.

Xiao Zhan pushed Yibo back to see, horrifyingly, a huge group of people giggling and grinning at them. Ice cold panic trickled down his spine and he looked numbly over at Yibo who was -

Smiling?

Yibo saw the panic on his face and turned to the people, “Come on, come inside and close the door, no one else needs to know he’s here.”

“Yibo?” His legs felt like jelly in his sleep-induced panicked state and he would’ve stood up but he knew he’d keel over as soon as he did.

“Xiao Zhan,” Yibo smiled at him then pointed to the people in front of them, who were all lined up against the wall, “meet my team!”

A rush of realization flooded through him then a sense of feeling like an idiot. Of course, Yibo would never do anything to sabotage them or their careers. 

He looked at all the people, who were in varying degrees of excitement, with some of them basically bouncing on their feet, beaming at him.

Xiao Zhan smiled at them and finally stood up, stumbling just a little only to be steaded by Yibo’s hand on his arm. He smiled gratefully at his boyfriend then bowed to all of them.

“Hello, I’m Xiao Zhan, nice to meet you all. Heard great things about you all from Yibo.”

Yibo grinned at him, then to his surprise, twisted an arm around Xiao Zhan’s middle, hand clamped possessively at his waist, “And guys, this is my boyfriend!”

Everyone screamed a greeting of their own and the wash of panic that had started rising up at Yibo’s words soon calmed down in the face of their excitement. Xiao Zhan smiled winningly at them all, but his face dropped into confusion once they all stopped what they were doing and gasped.

One of them, with a white bandana across his forehead, piped up, “Wow, Captain you weren’t kidding about the smile, huh?”

Xiao Zhan blinked in surprise and looked at Yibo who shrugged unapologetically, “I talk about you a lot.”

He wanted, in that moment, to press kisses into his skin but he was wary of the team members in front of them. Discretion was the best way to go.

Yibo left his side for a minute and he was approached by the friendlier members who struck up conversations about his dramas and acting and his time in X-Nine and he was more than happy to discuss all of that. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Yibo was whispering something to one of the producers who nodded and said something back. Soon they were asked to move to another area of the studio by the same producer and Xiao Zhan quickly straightened his clothes and hair and returned Yibo’s Airpods to his bag.

The walk there was long but it was spent conversing with Yibo’s team and Yibo kept throwing in all the anecdotes from the latest filming so Xiao Zhan barely noticed the time and distance passing.

When they all stopped at a corner of the studio, Xiao Zhan noticed Yibo’s team aligned themselves outside a covered room, looking expectantly at Yibo. Yibo grinned at them and looked at Xiao Zhan, holding a hand out for him to take.

He frowned and looked around, there was barely anyone else in the massive studio, since filming had wrapped hours ago. But Yibo and his team were still here and Yibo wanted to take him someplace? 

Xiao Zhan trusted his boyfriend infinitely so he threw caution to the wind and grasped Yibo’s hand as he was pulled into the room in front of them. At first, the inside looked just like any other house he’d been to but then he looked, really looked, and was absolutely gobsmacked. Save for pictures and mementos, the entirety of the room looked like a miniature version of their Beijing home, the one he shared with Yibo. There were cabinets and bins scattered around that weren’t theirs but Xiao Zhan’s jaw dropped in shock at the similarities.

Right away, he knew Yibo had done something, with the way his eyes twinkled at him right now, the way he’d been acting suspicious for the past week or so.

A disbelieving smile edged its way over his face as he tilted his head to regard his boyfriend, “Yibo, what are you upto?”

Yibo smirked and snorted a laugh as a voice sounded over them. It was obviously one of the dancers in Yibo’s team, trying to imitate a game show announcer’s tone of voice.

“Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, figure out the secret of this room and you will know the truth you so desire! Fail and you shall never know, succeed and you shall know eternal happiness. Begin!”

Xiao Zhan hunched his shoulders and spread his arms out in confusion, begin what exactly? He looked at Yibo, who cleared it for him, “Xiao Zhan, this is an escape room! C’mon I asked one of the producers to help me make this and they’ll let us use this area for an hour before the studio shuts down. My team helped me out with this, so c’mon let’s play!”

Yibo bounced excitedly and Xiao Zhan laughed, wondering how on Earth he’d managed to snag such a man. But before beginning, he pulled Yibo over with his hand and leaned down to press a light kiss over his lips.

“Thank you.” He whispered into the air between them and Yibo reached up to pull his neck down again to deepen the kiss.

“Anything for you, baby.” They smiled at each other for another moment before pulling away and looking around.

Xiao Zhan felt the excitement pouring from Yibo, raising his own spirits. An escape room was something he’d always wanted to do! He can’t believe Yibo remembered it all these years later. He’d said something of his wishes to Yibo back during the filming of The Untamed and he was shocked the man still remembered it all.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he looked around and saw Yibo do the same.

He halted for a moment, “Hey I thought you helped make this, so how can you play? Isn’t that cheating?”

“No, no I helped with the outline of our home but the rest of the clues and everything is all by my team.” Yibo said as he spun around comically as if the clues would start popping up around him.

Xiao Zhan laughed and did practically the same, going around and looking for anything that didn’t belong there.

Soon, he reached the fake kitchen and started to rifle through the cabinets and didn’t find anything until he pulled at the top most two cabinets and a yell from Yibo made him pause. 

“Look it says something.”

Xiao Zhan leaned back to look inside, and saw words that read ‘IS LOVE WORTH IT?’

Behind him, Yibo mumbled, “Love is always worth it, what a stupid question.”

Xiao Zhan snorted and looked around in the cabinet for any clue. A small piece of paper laid neatly in the middle caught his attention.

He snatched it and pulled it open to read, “Look for what is not right.”

Yibo scoffed, “Yeah the large bin full of weird shit isn’t right.”

Xiao Zhan yelled, “Wang Yibo!” but the gremlin had already moved away to look at everything closely again. If by the end of today, Yibo’s team wasn’t thoroughly offended by him then Xiao Zhan would count it as a win.

Many things stood out but no way of accessing them was made clear so the two stood in the middle of the room for a moment, thinking.

Then Xiao Zhan snapped his fingers, “What if it meant the left side of this room, not right?”

Yibo’s eyes lit up as he hurried over to the left segment of the room, which consisted of a small bed, with some cabinets and miscellaneous things. There was a smaller chest of drawers on the right side of the room, as well. A flower pot nearby that Yibo turned over yielded another note which read, “Every step makes a footprint.”

Xiao Zhan frowned at the quote, knowing it was a proverb but confused as to what it meant. He looked down at the floor which didn’t look any different and he even looked under his shoes as well, which was a bit unnecessary, he realized.

Without warning, Yibo dropped to the floor, face pressed against the ground, looking around for anything amiss. Xiao Zhan winced at the filthy state of the floor but instantly forgave Yibo once he shouted triumphantly, “Xiao Zhan, there’s some sort of paint around here! It’s not everywhere only some places.”

Xiao Zhan wondered what sort of paint wouldn’t show up; maybe something to do with a black light? A UV light? But there was no such tool around here. He heard Yibo muttering to himself as his eyes darted frantically around, what could it be, what could it - 

Xiao Zhan’s eyes widened at the switchboard on the wall, what if -?

Without warning, he grabbed Yibo and dragged him over to the switchboard but before flicking it down he pulled Yibo into his arms.

Yibo instinctively held Xiao Zhan, though he was thoroughly confused as to why he was being attacked with a hug. The answer came when the lights suddenly shut off. Yibo yelped, scrunching his eyes shut, and burrowed himself further into his boyfriend’s embrace.

Xiao Zhan held Yibo with both arms but looked quickly around them for any clues. He wanted to solve the game but not invoke Yibo’s fear of darkness.

There! He spotted a bunch of small arrows, glowing bright green in the darkness of the room, leading up to the small chest of drawers on the right side of the room.

A large green target was painted on the second left drawer and Xiao Zhan committed it to memory.

Meanwhile, he felt Yibo’s panicked breaths against his neck and took the time to soothe his hands over his boyfriend’s back. “Sorry, baby, I needed to see where the paint was leading to. And I have it now, okay? I’m gonna have the lights back on again.”

Keeping one arm around Yibo, he reached over to switch the lights back on again, pulling Yibo away from him to check if he was alright.

Xiao Zhan cooed at the fearful yet embarrassed look on Yibo’s face and pressed kisses to his cheeks until he wasn’t as pale anymore and was huffing out laughs.

Yibo pushed him away affectionately, and Xiao Zhan spun around to spot the exact drawer he’d seen painted green.

He walked over to it and pulled it open, Yibo hovering behind him to see.

What he pulled out was a clear plastic box full of golden keys. Xiao Zhan rattled the box, confused to see there was no other note attached to it. Yibo started pulling out all the drawers in the chest and they were all empty except for the last one, which contained a single note that read, “I was not made to be subtle.”

Yibo read it and rolled his eyes, “Yeah me neither, get in line.”

Xiao Zhan snorted and shoved Yibo who laughed. But the two quieted again as they thought.

Xiao Zhan looked down at the box of keys in his hand, and tilted it here and there.

“Not made to be subtle, not subtle…” he murmured to himself. Suddenly, a memory stood out.

In his last year at university, he’d been asked to help a fellow artist out with his ornate sculpture that was to be hand-painted gold and white. Xiao Zhan had suffered headaches from the intense oil-paint fumes for the rest of that month, nails caked with leftover gold and white paint. He vowed never to do sculptures ever since but something about that memory stuck.

“Whoa,” he whispered, “whoever made this escape room really knows their stuff.”

Yibo raised an eyebrow at him and Xiao Zhan leaned the box closer for him to see, “See these keys? They’re all painted gold, but maybe one of them isn't. Maybe just one key is actually gold. Well, not actually gold but golden metal, see?"

Yibo frowned, “How do we know which one?”

“I’ll need to look closely at them, I know my gold paint and it stands out from golden metal.” He nodded confidently at Yibo who looked struck for a moment before he whispered lowly, “I really want to fuck you right here, right now.”

Xiao Zhan gaped at him for a moment before hitting him weakly, too flustered to say anything.

Yibo shrugged nonchalantly so Xiao Zhan flicked the box open and spilled the keys onto the makeshift bed. He straightened out each key and leaned it up against the light, looking here or there. About ten keys in, he finally found one that didn’t have the telltale glint of fake paint, it was too smooth, too yellow to be oxidized paint.

He smiled at his boyfriend victoriously, “Here it is!”

Yibo grinned and pressed a biting kiss to his lips and stood up from the bed.

He looked around the room, wondering what place the key would fit into. There was a bookshelf full of volumes that didn’t stand out in any way, with a storing cabinet at the bottom of it. Yibo dashed for it, rummaging around to see if anything could fit with the key.

“Whoa, Zhan-ge, I think I found another box, this one’s heavy though!”

Xiao Zhan joined him and together they pulled out the mighty wooden box, that looked ancient enough to be an antique. Yibo quickly fumbled with the lock and swung the lid open.

Inside, Xiao Zhan saw two objects, one was a generic-looking smartphone and the other was a child’s playing block coloured half yellow and half pink with the letter ‘I’ pasted on it.

“Is that L or I?” Yibo asked him.

Xiao Zhan replied, “I’m guessing it’s an I, like a capital one.”

Yibo hummed and looked over the smartphone, unlocking it to see a solid colour wallpaper, generic apps, none of them logged in. There was no account logged in and nothing else that seemed to jump out. Yibo rifled through the gallery, media, anything to give him a clue but they came up empty. 

Xiao Zhan, meanwhile, looked the block over. It seemed pretty simple, like a toy.

But then his eyes lit up, “Wait, I saw so many other blocks like this all over the place.”

Yibo jumped to the same conclusion and the two dashed around for the next five minutes trying to find all the blocks that all had letters on them. They ended up with seven blocks, coloured in two shades each. 

Xiao Zhan spread them out on the bed, trying to figure out which way they’d go. He connected the block they initially found to another block that was also half yellow that spelled ‘V’.

Eventually, after the string of blocks was connected, the whole thing didn’t spell anything. In fact, it wasn’t a word. It was just a bunch of letters. Xiao Zhan tilted his head, confused as he stared at the blocks.

**MCCCXIV**

Something tickled the edge of his memory - 

“I remember! Zhan-ge, we played that one game, do you remember? You kept re-spawning in the wrong room, and all the rooms had those numbers on them, but they were in -”

 _“Roman numerals!”_ They both yelled at each other and then laughed at the absurdity of their situation.

Xiao Zhan looked down at the numerals, seeing them in a new light. Although he recognized most Roman numerals, he really couldn’t read the bigger numbers. They needed a guide, there had to be one here somewhere, everyone knew they weren’t that smart to know Roman numerals by heart.

Yibo was biting his lip and looking around just like him but they really couldn’t find anything to point them in the right direction.

Xiao Zhan stood up and looked around as well. He observed the computer on the desk that was imitating his own office desk back at home. He always had his art and documents backed up on his computer while he did the actual work and most of his doodlings on his tablet. They didn’t even try to switch the computer on. He quickly powered it up and found that it was completely empty, with a generic quote for a wallpaper. It wasn't connected to any internet so they really couldn't look up any of the numerals. Though he did wonder if Wi-Fi was allowed in escape rooms. Xiao Zhan checked the single drawer on the desk and found a tablet inside. He felt Yibo shuffle closer behind him and mouth the words written on the wallpaper, “A neglected spark makes for a mighty fire.”

“What does this mean?” Yibo asked him but Xiao Zhan shook his head, utterly baffled. 

The tablet finally powered up showing a blue screen with the words ‘DISCOVER THE TRUTH’ in the middle of it and a password space. There were seven letters to fit for the password but as Xiao Zhan tried every and any combination of letters relating to them or Yibo or himself, he came up empty each time. The ‘wrong’ sign on the tablet glared at him.

Had this escape room finally confounded them? Were they too dumb for this?

He rubbed his temples, urging his mind to think and think.

Xiao Zhan set the tablet down on the desk and swiped up the phone from Yibo’s hand, flicking through as Yibo felt his way around the room again, looking for anything they missed.

Xiao Zhan rifled through the apps until he stopped dead at a familiar one. As an inexperienced graphic design artist, he’d taken to experimenting with many free software and apps before he’d taken the plunge for the more sophisticated editing software. 

“Yibo,” he called his boyfriend over, “look.”

Yibo leaned over to see his boyfriend’s thumb hovering over an app called Spark. He smiled brilliantly at Xiao Zhan, “A neglected Spark. Xiao Zhan you’re gorgeous _and_ a genius, how do you do it?”

He flapped a hand at Yibo’s face, ignoring his laughter, and thumbed the app open. There was only one work saved onto it and he opened it to view.

It was a sketch of an elf reading a book sitting atop a shelf, with the edited words, “What is a bookshelf other than a treasure chest for a curious mind?”

Xiao Zhan read the words and gasped, “Yibo, it has to be the bookshelf.”

There were about ten different books on the shelf and they pulled all of them out, some of them impressively heavy and worn.

There were a few fantasy books, littered with self-help titles. Only one book stood out.

“The 2000 encyclopedia.” Xiao Zhan read the title in English, thinking back to all the clues they hadn’t solved.

His fingers traced the letters ‘MM’ under the title when he suddenly had a thought.

“Hey, you think this could have a page on Roman numerals?”

Yibo’s eyes lit up and brought the blocks over and arranged them in order again, as Xiao Zhan quickly read through the index for a page on Roman numerals.

They finally found a page that listed the way different numbers would be represented with different letters.

Xiao Zhan pulled out his phone and opened his Notes app as Yibo read out each number meticulously after tallying it with the given index. He finally typed out the numbers he was told which made it to ‘ **1314** ’. Xiao Zhan frowned at the numbers and looked at Yibo who wasn’t looking at him for some reason.

These weren’t seven numbers or letters that the tablet needed. He was pretty sure it all pointed to whatever was on the tablet since it said ‘Discover the truth’ and Yibo’s team had declared it a mission of truth.

Xiao Zhan bit at his lip. 1314, as in the year? But Georgian calendar or Chinese? Didn’t matter since he knew neither of them. He frowned some more, there had to be something here.

Did it mean something?

He started muttering under his breath as he paced across the floor, “1314, but it’s not the year since we both know nothing of it. Maybe there’s something in the encyclopedia?”

Xiao Zhan turned to the heavy book and consulted all the topics under 1314 and it was only about one Scottish battle but that couldn’t be it.

He worried his teeth over his thumb, mind flipping over all the different things the number could be about. Behind him, Yibo had seemingly stopped playing and stopped thinking but Xiao Zhan was too caught up in the game to notice.

His eyes landed on the tablet again and he picked it up.

Discover the truth, it said.

Seven characters. Xiao Zhan put in 1314 but that didn’t complete the string.

He huffed out a frustrated breath, and stared at the lit screen of the computer.

It was exactly seven characters long and definitely English alphabets. Xiao Zhan’s mind turned to his native language. Did those numbers mean anything in his own language?

Wait -

He stopped all movement and stared at the computer screen. All too many times he’d sat in front of his computer, waiting for the exact right minute for him to post something on Weibo or Oasis. Because the minutes or the date mattered. It meant something, it meant -

He looked at Yibo behind and said, “I think I know what it means!” 

Yibo was staring and smiling at him, a glint of something in his expression.

Xiao Zhan turned back and entered the seven characters into the tablet.

F O R E V E R.

As soon as he hit enter, the screen opened to a full-sized wallpaper, and in the same moment he felt a flurry of movement from behind him.

He paid it no mind because the words completely shocked him.

“Xiao Zhan. Marry me.”

Xiao Zhan tried to swallow but his throat was too dry and stiltedly, he moved. He turned around and gasped at the sight in front of him.

Yibo was on his knees, a box clasped in one hand, smiling serenely up at him. His entire face was soft with an expression of love that Xiao Zhan was used to but seeing it here and now, it took his breath away.

“Yibo?” He whispered, not wanting to interrupt but also wanting to know what the hell was happening.

“Zhan-ge.” Yibo uttered, his face completely calm, his body holding his position on the floor.

With slow movements, Yibo held up the black box in his hand, flicking it open to reveal a beautiful, golden band. 

With his other hand, Yibo grabbed Xiao Zhan’s hand pulling the man towards him. Xiao Zhan moved willingly because he was too shocked to do much else.

He stared woodenly down at Yibo who smiled back at him.

“Xiao Zhan. Zhan-ge. I love you.”

Xiao Zhan shuddered a breath in as he continued.

“From the moment I saw you, I knew that was it for me. You were always it for me. My day starts and ends with you. I didn’t start my life with you but I want to make sure that from this day on, my hours and my days and my life ends with you.”

A tear rolled down Xiao Zhan’s and he didn’t bother to brush it away, too aware of the serenity of the moment.

“Allow me, Xiao Zhan, to be by your side for the rest of our lives. I don’t care if the world doesn’t see our love as lawful, but with this ring I want to bind myself to you, I want to make sure you know that I am yours as I hope you are mine.”

Xiao Zhan sniffed pathetically; but he didn't care. It wasn’t every day he was getting proposed to.

Yibo tilted his head and smiled at him again, tugging at his hand playfully, “What do you say, Xiao Zhan? Forever?”

Xiao Zhan would never live down the fact that when he was proposed to, he burst into tears instead of answering. 

But in all fairness, through all his tears and emotions, he blustered out a strong ‘yes!’ to which Yibo had all but shoved the ring onto his left hand and yelled, “He said yes!”

Suddenly, a punch of noise rang up around them as Yibo’s team burst into cheers and hoots.

Xiao Zhan laughed as he realized he’d been utterly and plainly set up by the entire team and even the show's producer.

“Yibo, Yibo, Yibo.” He whispered frantically as Yibo hugged and kissed him until the tears stopped.

He tasted salt in their first kiss as an engaged couple but he didn’t mind. That was going to be the first of many kisses that they shared which would be imperfect but so perfect for them.

“Zhan-ge, I love you.” Yibo whispered into his ear as he was embraced rather tightly.

He didn’t blame Yibo, he didn’t want to let go either. But they were in a public space, with Yibo’s team clamouring to see them.

So Xiao Zhan laughed and pulled away, rubbing his wet cheeks, probably making them more red. To his shock, he saw Yibo wiping his eyes too. He cooed and helped his boyfriend, _fiance,_ look presentable so they weren’t a complete mess when they came out.

They blubbered through several watery laughs until they pulled each other out of the room back into the studio.

Yibo’s team yelled again at their reappearance, some of them clapping their backs, some of them wanting to see Xiao Zhan’s ring. Yibo ended the day by bowing gratefully to all of them for helping him out with one of the most important days of his life.

And since Xiao Zhan vowed to stand by Yibo his entire life, he joined him in bowing, entirely grateful for all their existences.

That day, Yibo’s team was suspiciously quiet on Weibo, even though they’d wrapped up another day of filming. Little did anyone else know they’d gone out for a celebratory dinner, hoping to see more of their new gege-in-law now, but mostly focused on gorging themselves on meat and beer for a job well done.

Across town, in a small hotel room, a couple was intimately entwined with each other, a half full bottle of champagne open on the counter, and a rather sparkling gold ring glinting in the dim light between the figures.

**Author's Note:**

> ok i know its sappy asf but hey DESERVE.  
> lemme know what u think :)


End file.
